By Leslie Ann G. Aquino
Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre H. Bello II yesterday said he has signed the department order officially lifting the total deployment ban of overseas Filipino workers to Kuwait.
“I just signed the order lifting the ban on the deployment of skilled workers and professionals, as well as in the deployment of household service workers,” Bello said in an interview in a hotel in Manila.
The order, Bello said, is “effective immediately.”
“They can leave as early as today if their papers are already ready,” he said.
The Labor chief said he recommended partial lifting but President Duterte was impressed by the goodwill gesture of the Kuwaiti government, prompting him to totally lift the ban.
Bello cited the recent signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between Kuwait and the Philippines on the protection of OFWs, and the justice given to Joana Demafelis as some of them.
“The Kuwaiti government is also sincere in its effort to provide protection to our OFWs. Plus the fact when we were there they were very cordial, they accepted all the requests we made, including the repatriation of about 600 of our OFWs in our shelters. They did not only agree to repatriate them, they also offered to defray the expenses for transportation,” he said.
